Leveraging the Science of Reading for ALL Students

Description: The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. Participants will learn how to do the following:

• Explain the Simple View of Reading and the importance of language comprehension and word recognition.
• Evaluate their reading program for three key components that drive growth.
• Identify practices they can implement to deliver targeted instruction for all students and improve reading performance.

Audience: Session in English and geared toward literacy curriculum leaders and school building and district administrators

Speaker Bio: Alestra Flores Menéndez is a Senior Biliteracy Specialist at Amplify from San Francisco, California. She started her career as a Spanish Dual Immersion Teacher. Over the past two decades, Alestra has worked with multilingual students and teachers in the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Brazil to support biliteracy. She has collaborated on projects designed for multilingual students with Stanford University’s SAIL project and UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Alestra teaches college English with the University of California Berkeley’s Equal Opportunity and Advancement Program and at Mt. Tamalpais College at San Quentin Prison. Alestra firmly believes that supporting literacy development, which is a lifelong endeavor, is the most impactful way to change lives.